Jay, Mary Rutherfurd, 1872-1951

Biography

Mary Rutherfurd Jay was born in Fair Haven Connecticut to the Reverend Peter Augustus and Julia Post Jay. Her family descended from John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States. She studied architecture at MIT and Harvard's Bussey Institute* in Forest Hills, Massachusetts. Her first commission was planting a plaisance on the grounds of a friend living in Connecticut. She began her practice in New York in 1908 and referred to herself as a garden architect. Most of her work was residential for clients in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, with some in New Jersey and Massachusetts. She spent an extended period travelling around the world in 1912 and throughout her life presented illustrated lectures related to international gardens.

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